My favorite scene is when one of the scientists is recording a video message and theoretically has inhaled lots of volcanic ash, which is very, very bad stuff. Every 30 seconds or so, he’ll look dramatically into the camera and cough for emphasis. (“Got it? Ash is bad.”) I can’t describe it well enough to do it justice. It’s B movie acting that would make Ed Wood drool.

Anyway, I’m tickled to see that there’s a new docu-drama about weather modification called Superstorm coming up, which has a giant storm hitting New York. (Haven’t we done that before?) Same producers, so I am looking forward to the same spurious casting decisions. But yeah, I’ll watch it.

Seriously, it was worth it just to hear Josh Holloway explain about crushing the tree frog and the hate mail he got over that.

If you like the show, it’s worth taking 20 minutes to watch the six videos posted, including a sea otter interrupting the Ping-Pong ball rescue experiment. Plus, you get to see an exploding cement mixer.

The first, as everyone should know and be watching already, is Lost. I’m not even going to try to explain it, but it may be the best weird, scary, deeply and disturbingly psychological mixed up show since about the fourth season of The X-Files. (Even though my favorite episode of that series, Bad Blood, was in the fifth season. To quote Scully: “You’re not gonna tell me you think it’s that Mexican goat sucker thing.” Mulder’s response: “El Chupacabra? No, they got four fangs, not two, and they suck goats, hence the name.”)

Best line of the series so far… “What, you didn’t hear about the polar bear?”

The next show, which truly does not suck, is the BBC’s new Doctor Who. It’s hard to find, as it’s not airing in the United States yet, but it is well worth tracking down for any diehard science fiction fans. The show is so much better than I expected it to be, I’ll even overlook the BBC’s latest attempts at scary aliens. They move rather like the Sigourney Weaver-turned-demon dog thing at the end of Ghostbusters, except with a higher frame rate.

While it is witty, in a thoroughly British style (Rose: “If you’re an alien, why do you sound like you’re from the north?” Doctor: “Lots of planets have a north.”), it is managing enough of the small-children-hiding-behind-the-sofa sort of horror of the old show that the BCC recently slapped a warning label on an episode that contained ghostly apparitions, zombies and Charles Dickens.

Best line of the series so far… “900 years and I’ve never been slapped by anyone’s mother,” after returning his newest traveling companion 12 months late, instead of 12 hours late.

The other show, which I have been watching back episodes of at Heather’s behest, is House. This off-beat hospital drama focuses on Gregory House, a brilliant diagnostic physician who also happens to be a complete and total jackass. Think Louie De Palma with a preternatural medical mind and bum leg. The character is so incredibly unlikable that it’s difficult not to appreciate him, even if just to satisfy your own inner jackass.

In a very odd change of roles, House is played by Hugh Laurie, who is not only English (unlike his character) but also played the father in Stuart Little. On a tangent from that, he attended Cambridge, where he was a member of the theater group Footlights, which produced several Pythons and Douglas Adams. Laurie was in Footlights with Stephen Fry, whose most recent roll is… drum roll, please… the Book, in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Best line of the series so far… This is a tough call, because the lines don’t always equal plot points. One of the best plot points is when he moves a patient who has just filed a 50-foot restraining order into a closer ICU. The reason? The ICU is just below the free clinic where he’s forced to work, meaning he gets out a clinic duty for a week.

As for best lines, try these…

Dr. Cameron: Men should grow up.
House: Yeah. And dogs should stop licking themselves. It’s not gonna happen.

Dr. Wilson: Beauty often seduces us on the road to truth.
House: And truth often kicks us in the nads.

Dr. Chase: Matt’s mum won’t make a move until she hears from the C.D.C.
Dr. Wilson: Godot would be faster.

If you aren’t already, check these out.